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Intransitive

The label applied to a verb that does not take a direct object. Some English verbs are always intransitive and can never take an object.

Examples are: sleep, come, go, die, fall, laugh, arrive etc.

• The child sleeps.
• He might come.
• He laughed loudly.
• Alice arrived early.

Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive.

Examples are: sink, ring, stop, speak etc.

• The explosion sank the ship. (transitive)
• The ship sank slowly. (intransitive)
• The driver stopped the train. (transitive)
• The train stopped suddenly. (intransitive)
• He spoke the truth. (transitive)
• He spoke rudely. (intransitive)